Incinerator

ABSTRACT

An incinerator includes a horizontal, rotatable hollow cylindrical body having an inlet at one end and an outlet at the other, vanes fixedly housed in the cylindrical body which, upon rotation of the cylindrical body, advances waste material toward the outlet, and a burner provided at the outlet side of the cylindrical body. The burner incinerates the waste material approaching the outlet to generate the combustion gas caused to pass upstream through the body thereby to dehydrate the waste material successively fed.

United States Patent Eiki [4 Nov. 4, 1975 INCINERATOR 2,088,225 7/1937 Allen et a1. 110/14 3,705,711 12/1972 Seelandt ll/l4X [75] Invent Japan 3,794,565 2/1974 Bielski et a1. 110/14 x [73] Assignee: Tohkai Denkia Tosoh Kabushiki Kaisha, g Japan Pn'mary ExaminerKenneth W. Sprague [22] Filed: July 8 1974 gigglgfikztgent, or Firm-Kemon, Palmer & [21] Appl. No.: 486,598

[30] F A Ii ti Pri D [57] ABS CT ta J l 32 ca on omy a An incinerator includes a horizontal, rotatable hollow U y apan 48'78704 cylindrical having an inlet at one d d an let at the other, vanes fixedly housed in the cylindrical [52] US. Cl 110/14, 110/165 R, 233220110151, body which, upon rotation of the cylindrical body, [51] I t Cl 2 F236 5/06 vances waste material toward the outlet, and a burner [58] d I105 108 provided at the outlet side of the cylindrical body. The o c 4322/11 burner incinerates the waste material approaching the outlet to generate the combustion gas caused to pass upstream through the body thereby to dehydrate the [56] References Clted waste material successively fed.

UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,043,459 6/1936 Windecker 110/14 1 Clam, 3 Draw Figures 5! 0/ 15 I4 1, 2 o 2o 24 54 46 5 5 2312, 251115 7 613 3 68 14a 67 l I 4 n I '1 64 i Q 4714 Hill l ,1 I 57/ \15. 1 1 1 11/\/ J i V- v j I i 1 J l J I 66 1' 943 12 ll M q *1//1 m 1 69 32 35 29 2a 3036 33 63 My 37 US. Patent Nbv. 4, 1975 Sheet 1 of 2 II FF i mm ww Qww ow m. om N J QN E Q o B US. Patent Nov. 4, 1975 Sheet2 of2 3,916,807

INCINERATOR BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION This invention relates to an incinerator for treating industrial waste material for disposal.

A known incinerator includes a cylindrical body and a burner disposed adjacent an inlet positioned at one end of the cylindrical body, wherein waste material introduced through the inlet is incinerated while being transferred toward another end of the cylindrical body. When waste material of a great water content such as contaminated sludges or the like is to be treated with the conventional incinerator, however, the incinerating ability of the device tends to be decreased because of moisture generated from such material, presenting difficulties to an efficient and complete incineration of such waste material.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION Accordingly, an object of this invention is to provide an incinerator particularly suited for disposing of industrial waste material which is difficult to incinerate due to its large water content.

Another object of this invention is to provide an incinerator wherein a transfer means is disposed within a cylindrical body rotatably supported in a horizontal posture thereby to advance waste material until one end of the cylindrical body at which it is successively incinerated while waste material being continuously fed into the body. And a combustion gas generated by the incineration is directed to pass upstream through the cylindrical body by way of exhaustion to evaporate water contained in the waste material while being downstream advanced through the cylindrical body so that combustibilty of the waste material may be enhanced.

Another object of this invention is to provide an incinerator whereby waste material introduced into a cylindrical body may be agitated by rotation of the cylindrical body to improve thermal contacLbetween the waste material and combustion gas and thus raise a degree of dehydration of the waste material whereby combustibility of the waste material and thermal efficiency of the apparatus may be enhanced.

Still another object of this invention is to provide an incinerator wherein a transfer means for waste material has the simplified structure comprising protruding vanes helically arranged internally of a cylindrical body.

A further object of this invention is to provide an incinerator wherein quantities of imperfect oxides of hydrocarbon, nitrogen oxides and dust particles contained in a combustion gas to be exhausted into the environmental air may be reduced by action of a steam co-existant condition of combustion which is induced by water fed into a cylindrical body during the operation.

A still further object of this invention is to provide an incinerator wherein an outer cylindrical member encircles the circumference of a cylindrical body with a spacing thereby to provide an interior passage through which incinerated residues produced at an outlet adjacent one end of the cylindrical body may be transferred to a disposing receiver and at the same time cooled to a suitable temperature for disposal. And heat emitted from the incinerated residues transferred may be communicated circumferentially through the wall of the en- 2 circled, cylindrical body to waste material advanced therein whereby dehydration thereof may be substantially accelerated.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a partially sectional side view of an incinerator embodying this invention;

FIG. 2 is a sectional view taken along line II II of FIG. 1; and

FIG. 3 shows an interior section of a cylindrical body of the incinerator, unfolded on a plane.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT Referring to the drawings, the incinerator according to this invention includes a cylindrical body 11 which has an outlet 11a at one end and an exhaust gas opening 11b at the other end, respectively. The cylindrical body 11 is further provided with a transfer means 12 fixedly arranged on its inner circumferential wall. The transfer means 12 is constituted by a screw device having three helical rows of vanes l3, l4 and 15 in which each vane 13a, 14a and 15a are spaced with predetermined equal spacings a, b and c to the other in the helical direction of each row. The three rows of vanes 13, 14 and 15 has such a relation in the axial direction that the first row of vanes 13 is placed near to the exhaust gas opening 1 lb of the cylindrical body 11 and the third row of vanes 15 near to the outlet 11a thereof so that the second row of vanes 14 is interposed therebetween. The helical rows of vanes 13, 14 and 15 have gradually reduced pitches in the direction from the exhaust gas opening 11b toward the outlet 11a of the cylindrical body 11, as shown in FIG. 1 by a dotted line and in FIG. 3, with heights of the vanes 13a, 14a and 15a of the rows becoming smaller also in the same direction. It is desired that the heights of the utmost vanes adjacent the outlet 11a be substantially one half of those of the utmost vanes adjacent the exhaust gas opening 11b. As best shown in FIG. 3, each vane 14a of the second row 14 is placed axially adjacent the spacings a and b between helical pairs of vanes 13a, 13a and 15a, 15a of the first and the third rows 13 and 15. In other words, each vane spaced helically with the predetermined spacing is positioned in a place opposed to the spacing a, b or c of other adjacent vane in the longitudinal, axial direction of the cylindrical body 11.

An outer cylindrical member 16 having a greater diameter than that of the cylindrical body 11 is provided with a through bore 17 at one end and an opening 18 at the other. The outer cylindrical member 16 receives the outlet side of the cylindrical body 11 through the opening 18 so that the left half section of the cylindrical body 11 as shown in FIG. 1 and the outer cylindrical member 16 are so arranged as to define a space 19 therebetween and fixedly connected to each other by a desirable number of connectors such as bolts, spacers, nuts and the like. The outer member 16 has on its inner circumferential wall a screw 21 having an inverted spiral to the three helical rows of vanes l3, l4 and 15 of the transfer means 12 and the amount of pitch of the screw 21 which is invarient as shown by dotted lines of FIG. 1. The outer member 16 is further provided on its outer circumferential wall with a cylindrical heat insulator member 22 so that a predetermined space may be formed therebetween by means of spacers and the like. The heat insulator member 22 has a pair of annular rails 23 and 24 formed with a predetermined space to each other on its circumferential wall. A further cylindrical heat insulator member 25 is disposed in the substantially right half section of the body 11 of FIG. 1 to form a predetermined space thereto by means of spacers and the like and is also provided with an annular rail 26 and a chain wheel 27 around the outer circumferential wall. The rails 23, 24 and 26 of the members 22 and 25 are placed on respective support rollers 32, 33 and 34 rotatably journaled in support frames 29, 30 and 31 which are all held on a base 28 so that the body 11 and the outer member 16 may be rotatably supported with their center axis lying horizontally relative with the base 28. The support rollers 32, 33 and 34 along with their frames 29, 30 and 31, as shown in FIG. 2, are disposed in pairs, respectively, and have bilateral circular jaws 35, 36 and 37, respectively, thereby to prevent movement of the body 11 and the outer member 16 in both the axial and the thrust directions. A drive mechanism 38 as shown in FIG. 2 consisting of a motor, a reducing device and the like is held on the base 28. A drive shaft 39 of the mechanism 38 has a small chain wheel 40 mounted thereto. The small chain wheel 40 is connected through a chain 41 to the aforementioned chain wheel 27 of the heat insulator member 25 whereby rotation of the drive chaft 39 may be communicated through small chain wheel 40, chain 41 and chain wheel 27 for rotating the body 11 and the outer member 16 in the direction of Arrow 42.

A hollow burning cylinder 43 closed at one end has at the other end a burner port member 45 through which a kerosine burner 44 may be introduced and further in the upper portion an inlet 46 for introducing a secondary air. In a substantially central region of the interior of the burning cylinder 43 is placed a diffuser 47 by means of radially extending stems for diffusing flame from the kerosine burner 44. A scroll 48 for turning flame diffused by the diffuser 47 is disposed in an opening portion which the burning cylinder 43 has within the body 11. The scroll disposing opening portion of the burning cylinder 43 is extending into the outer member 16 through the through opening 17 to terminate within the outlet 11a of the body 11. The burning cylinder 43 is held on the base 28 by means ofa support 49. The burning cylinder 43 is provided with a suitable number of masking shields 50 disposed circumferentially in a region lying outside of the outer member 16 and adjacent the through bore 17. A suitable member of corresponding masking shields 52 are secured to an annular portion 51 of the heat insulator member 22 so that they are disposed opposite the masking shield 50 of the burning cylinder 43 thereby to refrain flow of environmental air through the through bore 17 into the outer member 16 and the body 11 and also emission of heat from the interiors. A heat insulator member 53 is spacedly disposed on a circumferential wall of the burning cylinder 43 which is not covered by the aforementioned heat insulator member 22. It is spaced therewith at a predetermined distance by means of spacers and the like.

An exhaust gas port 54 is secured on the base 28 through a support 55 and disposed around the other end of the body 11 at which the exhaust gas opening 11b is formed thereby to establish communication between the body interior and the environment through an exhaust gas conduit 56. The exhaust gas conduit 56 has therein a blower not shown for forcesucking exhaust gases from the interior of the body 11 in the direction of Arrow 57. The blower provides a dehydrat- 4 ing device in combination with the kerosine burner disposed in the one end of the body 11. The exhaust gas port 54 is provided with a heat insulator member 58 spaced at a predetermined distance with an outer circumferential wall thereof by means of spacers and the like.

A hopper 59 for introducing waste material into the body 11 is secured on the base 28 by a support 60. The hopper 59 is provided with a transfer pipe 62 having a known type of transfer screw means 61 therein and the transfer pipe 62 extends through the heat insulator member 58 and the exhaust gas port 54 to terminate within the body 11 adjacent the exhaust gas opening 11b.

A hopper 63 for receiving incinerated residues is secured onto the base 28 with its upper opening positioned below the opening 18 of the outer member 16. A water supply means 64 is formed by a supply conduit 65 connected at one end with a supply source not shown as in waterworks and extending through the heat insulator member 58 and the exhaust gas port 54 into the body 11 adjacent the exhaust gas opening 11b. The supply conduit 65 has a valve 66 in the intermediate portion.

In operation, the burner 44 is ignited and the drive mechanism 38 is brought into operation to rotate the body 11 and the outer member 16 in the direction of Arrow 42, say, at a rate of 0.5 to 3 turns per minute. The blower not shown disposed in the exhaust gas conduit 56 is also actuated. Then, waste material, as introduced into the hopper 59 with the transfer screw means 61 rotated, are transferred in the direction of Arrow 57 through the trnsfer pipe 62 by action of the screw means 61 so that they are successively fed into the body 11 from the distal end of the transfer pipe 62. The transfer means 12 housed in the rotated body 11 causes the waste material thus introduced therein to be advanced through the body 1 1 downstream in the counter direction of Arrow 67. The burner 44 generates flame which is diffused by the diffuser 47 and contacted with a secondary air sucked in the direction of Arrow 68 through the blower not shown in the exhaust gas conduit 56 thereby to conduct a substantially perfect combustion. Such flame is then turned through the scroll 48 and introduced in the one end of the body 11. The blower not shown is actuated also to cause a combustion gas thus generated to pass as a heated gas upstream in the direction of Arrow 57 through the body 11 thereby to come into contact with the waste material advanced downstream by the transfer means 12 in order to perform their dehydration. Exhaust gases resulting from depriving water or gases of the waste material reaches the other end of the body 11 and are therein exhausted through exhaust gas opening 11b, port 54 and conduit 56. The waste material is thus dehydrated successively while being upstream advanced and is incinerated in a portion adjacent the outlet 11a of the body 11 through such flame from the burner 44. incinerated residues thus generated are dropped off through the outlet 11a into the outer hollow member 16 and transferred therethrough in the direction of Arrow 69, because of the screw 21 turned in the direction of Arrow 42 and having an inverted spiral to the transfer means 12, to the opening 18 through which they are dropped offinto the hopper 63 to be stored therein. The incinerated residues while being transferred through the outer member 16 may be cooled by emission of heat to a suitable temperature for disposal and at the same time heat thus emitted is communicated to the body 11 thereby to accelerate dehydration of the waste material or the like advanced therethrough.

In order to enhance a degree of thermal exchange by contact between the heated gas and such waste material in this embodiment of the invention, the transfer means 12 is formed in each row by a great number of the vanes 13a, 14a and 15a forming the predetermined spacings a, b and c between each other. On the supposition that the second row of vanes 14, for instance, is removed, the spacings a and between helically adjacent pairs of vanes 13a, 13a and a, 15a of the first and the third rows result in forming an axial passage in registry with dotted lines of FIG. 3, through which water derived both from such waste material and the water supply means 64 tends to flow without evaporation directly toward the outlet 11a and stay adjacent the outlet 11a so as to decrease capability of incineration of the apparatus. When the vanes in the three rows are provided in accordance with the invention, however, each vane 14a of the second row 14 prevents such a passage to be formed in registry with the spacings a and 0 between each adjacent pair of the vanes 13a, 13a and 15a, 15a. Water derived from such waste material and the supply means 64 is thus refrained from flowing at once in quantity toward the outlet 11a without evaporation thereby to effectively avoid such decrease of incineration capability which may otherwise occur.

This embodiment is provided, as stated above, with the vanes of the transfer means 12 having gradually reduced pitches toward the outlet 11a. Waste material advanced upstream has gradually decreased volume as it approaches the outlet 1 1a due to successive dehydration, and since the pitches of the vanes vary correspondingly to such distribution of volume difference of the waste material upstream advanced, the vanes of the transfer means 12 may cause the waste material to be distributed uniformly in the length of the body 11 despite of its volume difference whereby any undesirable vacant space may be eliminated in the body 11 so as to effectively utilize a whole capacity of the body 11. An amount of pitch of the vane positioned most adjacent the outlet 11a, which should be smallest than those of the other vanes, may be so determined relative with the incinerating rate of waste material by the burner 44 and the supply amount of waste material to the outlet 11a as to enhance a degree of incineration efficiency.

Experimental anlysis of the inventor shows that only extremely small quantities of imperfect oxides of hydrocarbon and nitrogen oxides and almost no dust particles are contained in exhaust gases generated from the incinerator so that the operation may be performed without involving environmental pollution. This would be ascribed to a steam co-existant combustion as explained in the following. As waste material is dehydrated while being upstream advanced through the body 11, evaporation of water contained in the waste material and fed from the supply means 64 may create a steam atmosphere in the body 11 wherein water vapor existing adjacent the outlet 11b may be decomposed by action of heat from the burner 44 into hydrogen which may ensure a substantially perfect combustion. A nonreactive water vapor and carbon dioxide may be produced through decomposition and combustion of such water vapor to act as an inert gas or an inhibitor to avoide excessive heating. Thus, a substantially perfect combustion may be achieved under fire retardant conditions which may inhibit generation of imperfect oxides of hydrocarbon and nitrogen oxides without involving environmental polltition. Dust particles while being carried with the heated gas passing downstream through the body toward the exhaust gas opening 11b may be captured by water vapor in the body 11. The water supply means 64 feeds water into the body 11 to increase a generated amount of water vapor so that a degree of such capturing efficiency may be enhanced. Where a relatively small amount of water is contained in waste material to be disposed of the water supply means 64 may maintain a steam co-existant combustion.

It has been shown that an amount of dust particles is reduced in exhaust gases derived from the exhaust gas opening 11b when the body 11 includes a great amount of water vapor in the interior as compared to'the case where substantially no water vapor is included therein. This is because dust particles contained in a combustion gas passing upstream through the body 11 may be combined with such water vapor to gain weight and thus dropped down from the exhaust gases in an intermediary portion of the body to arrive at the opening 11b only in a reduced amount.

What is claimed is:

l. in an incinerator comprising a cylindrical body having an outlet at one end, burner means provided at said outlet, an exhaust gas opening formed at the other end of said body for allowing a gas produced by said burner means to be exhausted through the interior of said body to the exterior thereof, means for rotatably supporting said body in a horizontal posture, means for rotating said body thus supported, blower means for sucking from said gas opening the gas from the interior of said body, and transfer means provided within said body to transfer toward said outlet waste material to be incinerated which is introduced from said other end, said incinerator including a cylindrical outer member disposed to encircle at a predetermined space an outer circumferential portion of said body which includes said outlet and at least an intermediary portion extending therefrom, and a helical screw provided in an inner wall of said outer member thereby to cause incinerated residues produced at said outlet to be transferred through said space toward an incinerated residue receiver.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE CERTIFICATE OF CORRECTION PATENT NO. 3,916,807 DATED November 4, 1975 INVENTOR(S) I HIROSHI EIKI It is certified that error appears in the above-identified patent and that said Letters Patent are hereby corrected as shown below: O

"[73] Assignee: Tohkai Denkia Tosoh Kabushiki Kaisha, Kasugai, Japan" should read -[73] Assignee: Tohkai Denki Tosoh Kabushiki Kaisha, Kasugai, Japan-- Column 4, line 33, "trnsfer" should read -transfer--.

Signed and Scaled this Twentieth D y of y 1976 [SEAL] Attest:

. DANN RUTH c. MASON MARSHALL Arresting Officer (ummissioner nfPalents and Trad 

1. In an incinerator comprising a cylindrical body having an outlet at one end, burner means provided at said outleT, an exhaust gas opening formed at the other end of said body for allowing a gas produced by said burner means to be exhausted through the interior of said body to the exterior thereof, means for rotatably supporting said body in a horizontal posture, means for rotating said body thus supported, blower means for sucking from said gas opening the gas from the interior of said body, and transfer means provided within said body to transfer toward said outlet waste material to be incinerated which is introduced from said other end, said incinerator including a cylindrical outer member disposed to encircle at a predetermined space an outer circumferential portion of said body which includes said outlet and at least an intermediary portion extending therefrom, and a helical screw provided in an inner wall of said outer member thereby to cause incinerated residues produced at said outlet to be transferred through said space toward an incinerated residue receiver. 